Name and Title of the Programme   :    Webinar on “Robotics in Everyday Life – Threat or Opportunity”

Date   :    23rd October, 2020

Organized by     :    Jointly by:-

                                  1. IEEE Delhi Section and 
                                  2. Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management (BVICAM), New Delhi

In collaboration with       :    1. Computer Science (CS) Chapter of IEEE Delhi Section
                                            2. Consultants Networks Affinity (CNA) Group of IEEE Delhi Section
                                            3. Inter Society Relations (ISR) Standing Committee of IEEE Delhi Section
                                            4. Industry Relations (IR) Ad-Hoc Committee of IEEE Delhi Section
                                            5. Life Members Affinity (LMA) Group of IEEE Delhi Section
                                            6. Institution of Electronics and Telecommunications (IETE), Delhi Centre
                                            7. Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), Delhi Section
                                            8. Computer Society of India (CSI), Mumbai
                                            9. The Institution of Information Technology Professionals, Safa Society, New Delhi
                                            10. IIPC, AICTE, New Delhi

Report:

The Webinar was held on 23rd October, 2020 in the benign presence of the dignitaries from all the professional societies. Prof. R. K. Vyas, National President, CSI welcomed all the invited guests and participants. Prof. M. N. Hoda, Director, Bharati Vidyapeeth's Institute of Computer Applications and Management (BVICAM), New Delhi addressed the session and discussed the background note of conducting such Webinars through virtual platforms. He emphasized that these webinars act as networking tools to connect people from across the world and help them to adapt to a New Normal life, a new ecosystem caused by COVID-19. He also discussed the five phases of COVID-19 i.e. Denial, Anger, Bargain, Depression and Acceptance and motivated the participants to directly move to Acceptance phase from Bargain phase without going into Depression phase, which is also one of the objectives of these weekly webinar series. He also motivated participants to continue learning regardless of all disruptions. He also discussed the background of the topic of the webinar; Robotics, which is going to be pervasive and omnipresent in our day to day life.

Prof. Manohar Lal, Former Director, SOCIS, IGNOU, New Delhi. He first introduced the topic to the participants. He discussed that Robotics is the grindstone of automation, capable of revolutionizing the production and service sectors. Robots are common in production lines and assembly lines as they are tireless, stronger, more precise and faster than humans. However, as technology advances in the areas of energy and artificial intelligence, robots are becoming common in even more areas that were traditionally dominated by skilled human workers such as drivers, waiters and many more. Robots and intelligent agents, started to make their appearance in jobs that demand higher intellectual capabilities like medical doctors, lawyers and so on. He also discussed that the cost of the Robots have been dramatically reduced over the past two decades, making Robots. However, adopting robots to an organization is not an easy task and will require changes to organizational structure, business processes and culture. Primary limitation of the Robots will be abilities related to common sense and other related issues.

The session was concluded with Question & Answer round where participants willingly asked their queries, followed by concluding remarks by Prof. M. N. Hoda. He gave his heartfelt appreciation to Prof. Manohar Lal for his insightful and detailed session. He also thanked all the participants and panellist for giving their precious time for having participated in this webinar and also making all the other webinars hosted by BVICAM, a huge success. The webinar attracted huge participation from across the country and abroad like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Canada, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Maylasia, Qatar, Bangladesh, Spain, etc. The webinar was coordinated and anchored by Dr. Ritika Wason, Associate Professor, BVICAM, New Delhi and Mr. Uttam Singh Bist, Assistant Professor, BVICAM, New Delhi was the technical host for the Webinar.